Chapter 20

"I liked you better when you were a cop," The Matchmaker frowned from the doorway of his Berlin flat. "I didn't have to get up to open the fucking door."

"I could kick it in, if you like," Wolfgang shrugged. "For old time's sake."

"Hmph," the man turned away, limping back to his easy chair and the football match on his small television. He was older, in his fifties, and thin with thick white hair on top of his narrow skull. He dressed like a peasant, Wolfgang thought, wearing old tweed trousers and a flannel shirt, with wide suspenders rather than a belt.

Wolfgang closed the door behind him and turned the bolt. He glanced around the modest apartment just assure himself that they were alone. The place was neat and clean, very orderly for someone who lived alone perhaps, but he was a tidy man by nature, as Wolfgang knew. The Matchmaker was a small time fence as well, and sometimes an informant for the Federal Police, depending on circumstances.

He wasn't much of a criminal as such things go, however; the man had no taste for violence or anything that would get him locked away for more than a year or two and he was too valuable for that. He rarely took risks, but the dour look on his face made it clear that was precisely what he thought Wolfgang was. That wasn't too surprising. The Matchmaker's real business was dealing in contacts and selling information. He knew everyone and arranging introductions made him more than a modest living. In the clandestine world of German crime, The Matchmaker was the one man everyone trusted, if only because everyone needs help once in awhile.

"Here," Wolfgang said, dropping a small roll of Euros onto the man's lap before taking a seat on an old, well-worn sofa.

"I had visitors today," The Matchmaker said, picking up the money and pulling the rubber band free so he could count it.

"Oh?"

"Friends of yours, I think." He counted the money quickly and stuffed it into the seat cushion beside him.

"Federal Police?"

"They smelled like Gestapo," the man agreed.

"Did they ask about anything in particular?" Wolfgang wondered, ignoring the small jibe.

"Hamburg," he snorted. "I wasn't much help, I'm afraid. Have you been there recently?"

"No," Wolfgang sat back with a shake of his head.

"I didn't think so," the man nodded. "A dangerous place these days. You should stay away from there."

"Thanks."

"So?" The Matchmaker looked at his visitor. "What do you want this time?"

"The same as last time," Wolfgang said and he frowned at the sardonic smile playing across the older man's face. "I accidentally dropped something in the river."

"Clumsy," he said with a chuckle. "Two days?"

"Tonight?"

"Hmmm..." the man glanced at the clock above his television. "How well do you know Salzwedel?"

Wolfgang shrugged.

"I'll draw you a map," he said. "At least it's on the way, no?"

"The way to where?" Wolfgang narrowed his eyes.

"Why ... Hamburg, of course," The Matchmaker said with a grin.